“Get Out” – Former F1 Driver Wants Kimi Raikkonen to Retire in 2021

Who’d have thought that even Kimi Raikkonen has haters? The ‘Iceman’ has been in Formula One for nearly two decades now and also has a world championship title under his belt. At the age of 40, Kimi is still racing for Alfa Romeo and continues to be loved by F1 fans, for all his on-track and off-track abilities. However, a certain former F1 driver wants him out of Formula One, once and for all.

Giedo van der Garde doesn’t want “old guys” like Kimi Raikkonen in F1 anymore

GPUdate.net interviewed Giedo van der Garde. The former Caterham driver felt that F1 needs to give more chances to young talent. He said, “Give a young talent the opportunity in F1. Not those old guys anymore. Kimi has to get out once and Fernando shouldn’t come back at all.”

Van der Garde made the aforementioned statement when asked about, what he thought of the potential return of Fernando Alonso to F1, with Renault. He also said, “No. If I were Alonso I wouldn’t want that at all. He will return to Renault for the third time and is now even older. Let him focus on IndyCar and the Dakar.”

Similarly, van der Garde even thought that Nico Hulkenberg is too old to get a drive in F1. Giedo is hell bent on giving ‘youth a chance’ and you can see why he thinks that. With the likes of Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, George Russell and Lando Norris among others, the future of F1 seems to be in safe hands. However, a world champion like Kimi Raikkonen has earned the right of deciding when to call it quits.

In any case, it seems unlikely that Kimi will continue in F1 for too long. His contract at Alfa Romeo expires in 2020, even at best he may continue for only a season after that, so either way, Giedo would soon be pleased.